


Running Until the Earth Stops

by Poetiicdissonance



Series: The Sounds of Passers-By [3]
Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Relationships, F/M, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Modern Era, Multi, Other, Pickpockets, Travel, World Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-30 18:57:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20102038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetiicdissonance/pseuds/Poetiicdissonance
Summary: (Hermes who’s never seemed more alive than chasing adventure through the streets of New York-Tokyo-Seoul). He could never understand losing your passion for the art.





	Running Until the Earth Stops

** _Shanghai_ **

China is a busy country, the streets are alight with the constant ebb and flow of people. It’s a comfortable place to be for Hermes, a smirk on his features as he makes his way through the streets of the city. He’s no longer the divine messenger of the gods, because they no longer have messages- not for him, not for the others. Instead, he runs and laughs, and never ever stops. The world moves too fast for everyone else, but he’s so content here. The frenetic pace of the world is almost more comfortable for the god of thieves and messengers.

The old men in suits don’t have pockets full of gold anymore, but their watches are still made of it, and his fingers still find them. Shanghai is an easy city to live in. The men are rich, and the city is beautiful. It’s easy to be young here, and to fade into the crowd, just another grinning youth. No one notices one more of them, there’s more than enough. 

Shanghai is alive with the pressure of almost thirty million people, and revolution runs underneath it all. Bred in the back streets of a country, Hermes feels almost like he’s flying. (Sometimes he has messages to give, it’s rare, but Athena tells him to find Artemis, and so he leaves. Shanghai wouldn’t change for years anyway). The threads of revolution weren’t yet ready to be made whole.

** _Tokyo_ **

There’s something about Tokyo that feels alive. The others haven't come. Few of them ever leave their self appointed city. Few of them care enough to do so. The nights are never ending (they say New York is the city that never sleeps, but Tokyo is  _ vibrating _ ). It’s dizzying sometimes, even for him. (Someone new in his bed every night, another pocket full of coins pulled from the pockets of stupid, greedy men).

(Look up, look left, there’s something magical in the neon and chrome madness of Tokyo). He feels alive in this place. The millennias melt off, and he doesn’t feel young so much as he feels comfortable. Half the world runs too slowly, but this isn’t like that, this is the sort of city that makes the other gods hide. But for him it’s just fast enough. 

He spends two months in Tokyo, exploring the hidden secrets of the city, and experiencing the world, quick and dizzying. And then he leaves, kisses another girl before he goes, and runs somewhere else. (it’s incredible, but nothing ever lasts). He can always come back, and there's no lack of fascinating people to fall into bed with.

** _New York_ **

He meets Icarus in New York and laughs at the tragedy of it. 

He meets Icarus in New York and laughs at the irony of it. 

Hermes spends two weeks with him, and then he moves on, bored of the city that’s become predictable and of the company that used to be his brother’s lover. (Icarus hates Apollo, Icarus loves him, and Hermes doesn’t ask why he stuck around the last two weeks. He already knows. Once you’ve touched divinity it can be hard to accept anything less). 

Icarus is a pretty boy- sad and tragic, but stunning. In the morning when the light catches his hair just right Hermes can see why Apollo was intrigued. (Fourteen days isn’t very long, but longer than Apollo ever gave him). Icarus doesn’t ask about Apollo, he doesn’t ask anything, just takes what Hermes gives him. So he kisses him and takes everything he can. (He doesn’t burn as bright as his brother, but Icarus is caught up in it all the same).

He sees Apollo on the last day, with a guitar on a street corner, and he smirks, at the not-victory over his brother. There was never going to be any sort of love between them after all, just a sense of use and abuse, before a sense of triumph when he left. He doesn’t love Icarus, although it’s not like the man loves him either. They fuck, they don’t talk, and Hermes moves on to the next city, the next adventure, the next lover. (Steal a kiss, whisper a lie, and pretend to love them for a week).

** _Toronto_ **

Toronto is… a pleasant city. It’s not loud or bubbling with undercurrents, but it’s not unpleasant. Mari is a lovely surprise. Quick witted, and even quicker on her feet, Hermes thinks in another time she would have been one of Athena’s followers. She’s sweet, and when he leaves (he moves faster than most cities, there simply isn’t enough to keep his attention), he apologises. She was intriguing, but the world wasn’t. (He brings her with him to New Orleans, and then leaves her finding herself in the city). 

Toronto is lean, and the business is full of far less underhanded deals and ambitious men than most of them. It’s almost disappointing. The cleanliness, the lack of espionage and excitement. It’s by no means the least interesting place he’s ever been, but it’s missing the thrum of a city at war with itself. The technology is good, but nothing like Tokyo. In the end, Hermes leaves, half turned back to Toronto, before he runs after the next adventure. (Mari looks ecstatic when he offered to take her anywhere). Mari seems happier away from it all anyways, escaping the monotony that Hermes spent a lifetime running from.

** _London_ **

London is an old city- not older than him, but older than many of them. It’s funny, the mesh of old and new, not seamless, but fitting together like a puzzle. There's a view from the top of the London Eye that he can never seem to find anywhere else. (At night, when the city is illuminated by the off whites and yellows of lighting, he can feel the stillness of the world. The lack of magic and divinity that had made the air seem charged back… back when they still had believers). Sometimes he wonders how long he can keep running.

The youth of London are an odd bunch. A collection of those who seem far too old for their bones, an those who look younger than they are. It’s a hypnotic feeling. These people are going to change the world if it lets them. He meets Abilene there. They’re brilliant- delicate features, a harmless look until the smile sharpens and men find themselves short their diamond cufflinks. Abilene doesn’t love him, doesn’t really love anyone but their little sister who’s gone to university to study marine biology.

He spends a month in London. And when it’s over, he leaves, taking the first flight out of Heathrow. Abilene kisses him before he leaves, and when Hermes checks his bag he sees that left in the place of a business man's wallet is a note saying ‘Thank you for everything’. London is an old city, not older than him, but old enough, and Abilene is only the last in a long line of lovers. (Years later he sees their sister credited in some article or another, and smiles).

** _Seoul_ **

All roads lead to Rome. Or at least that’s what it feels like from the top of the Lotte World Tower. (The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is higher, but there’s still something intoxicating about this). He doesn’t think any of the other gods have ever even come to Seoul. They were content, or more accurately, stuck in place. Apollo played music on any street corner that struck his fancy, and Ares spent more time in and among the rubble than anything else.

Below him, Hermes knows that people are watching the cars and proof of existence in the city below. For them it was exciting, but Hermes thinks, it’s not the same as when the world itself was alive with the divine. He hadn’t stayed long in Seoul this time, just a few days. In the morning he would leave, off to a new destination, and a new adventure. Maybe someone would call on him to bring a message to one of the other gods. But he doubted it.

Korea was one of his favourite countries, but lately it had seemed not-enough. (That wasn’t quite the truth. It was more that he expected more than the city could give). Above him, the sky burned with the colours of the sun setting. Standing, Hermes turned away from the edge of the building, he was leaving early the next morning. He could always return.


End file.
